


cuando el sueño venga por mi

by doubtthestars



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Footy Ficathon, Gen, M/M, alberto centric, lowkey falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 05:33:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3557960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doubtthestars/pseuds/doubtthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>history repeats itself with different players on the same stage. </p>
<p>or Alberto makes the same mistakes as his predecessors but somehow makes it out better than them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	cuando el sueño venga por mi

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [English and Ink](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2489519) by [kaixo (ballpoint)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballpoint/pseuds/kaixo). 



> _“Everyone must leave the things they love sometime or the other.”_
> 
>  
> 
> title from La Oreja de Van Gogh's Puedes Contar Conmigo.

Javier leaves too soon for Alberto to say everything he wants to say, important things like "I still have your whispered confidence between my ribs" or "why would you believe in me when you are the one that stood in Madrid against lions and came out for the better?" Alberto feels the shift in balance when Javier leaves. Suso could talk twice as loud and as much for two people, but there is still a space missing beside him and table tennis is never the same.

*

Daniel makes him play pool instead. Mario is terrible at it but dutifully tags along when the wager is food or humiliation. Alberto's English is steadily progressing in the year without Javi. Couti is his partner in crime during class in a different flavor than Javier. It highlights the murky feeling he still gets whenever he sees Atleti's starting XI with Manquillo attached. There is pride and sadness at war like the red and white stripes of Javi's kit, like the crest he had left behind, and Alberto thinks red is winning most of the time.

*

Christmas comes with a package of assorted food packaged neatly and tennis balls for Ali. A postcard of Madrid's shining city with the words: 'come visit me when you get tired of seeing grey skies' in Javier's scrawl makes him curse the English for being incapable of letting them go two weeks without play. They will see each other during internationals with _La Rojita_ but that is not time enough for Alberto and he almost fears no matter how much time they take, it will never be enough for his sensibility to kick in. He is a typical Sevillano, eager to throw caution to the wind and bright enough to know it will end terribly.

*

Alberto eventually garners enough attention to get called up to the senior team and Javier joins him a few months later. _Rojo_ suits Javier. It is a silly throwaway thought between dreaming of _pescaido frito_ and sand under his toes. They are on a plane with an armrest between their bodies. Javier looks troubled even when he sleeps, a persistent air of worry around the younger man that makes Alberto act goofier to pull a smile and a laugh from his teammates. Pique nudges Sergio, "it is like seeing your younger clone." Sergio meets his eyes before replying, "Albertito will go places I wouldn't ever dream of." half serious, half-joking. 

*

Santi congratulates him in the same easy manner he does everything. It was a tough game but Liverpool came on top, not for lack of trying on his compatriot's part. Alberto feels the rush of blood wane as the press crowd in. He says a few clumsy words, still shy with the language on camera, painfully aware of what he probably looks like sweaty and red for everyone around the world to see the awkward, slow syllables fall from his mouth. Javi texts him much later when Alberto is in the fog of nodding off in front of the _telly_ with a string of emoticons ending in, 'good job with the english.' 

*

It is a bit surreal to share the same space as Xabi Alonso once more. He made good on his promise to Javier to come to Madrid and he wasn't exactly sure what Xabi was doing besides calmly watching the Madridristas celebrate their win in the derby. There is more whistling than Alberto is used to in Anfield and that is strange to think because he is using Liverpool as his baseline instead of Sevilla and he is not sure when that changed. Javi flew on the pitch and Alberto felt the itch of playing alongside him because his partner was sloppy. 

"How is Liverpool treating you, Morenito?" _Liverpool_ catches and drags Xabi's voice, in the same way it does with Pepe Reina's and in Jose's. He wonders if it will ever be the same way with him. Xabi had been there for five years before leaving for _Los Blancos_. Alberto thinks that is the most they will have in common, five years with 'never walk alone's.

"It is a wonderful adventure, like you said it would be." He nods with a distant look in his eyes. Alberto wants to thank him, for saying those words all those years ago, but it seems inappropriate now. Somehow, it reminds him of the look Stevie would get in his last season with the Reds. It was something deeper than Alberto felt comfortable asking after.

*

Mario sends him a picture of Alberto and Javi hugging alongside a picture of Xabi and Stevie hugging with the tagline of 'liverpool is for love'. It is a ridiculous comparison and he doesn't want to know where Balo found it in the depths of the internet. He counts himself lucky Mario hadn't shared it in the whatsapp group instead of just directly texting him.

'Like father, like son, right?' with an emoji sticking out its tongue mocking him. Alberto feels strange, he is becoming old guard in Liverpool. He is not the fresh-face anymore, but he doesn't feel like his adventure is over. 

'I don't know. Ask me again when I'm thirty.' he sends back confidently. His locker has a carefully cut out picture of Javi stuck on it the next morning and Hendo tells him he'll make Balo run extra laps since he has the spare time. Alberto laughs but tucks the picture into his things. It was a nice one.

*

He cries when they reach the semi-finals and get knocked out by Brazil. There is nothing worse than almost victory. His face mashed into three different shoulders is plastered in every newspaper he sees when he gets back home. Javier held him up with his deceptive strength and wiry arms as he shook with tiny sobs into his neck. He is bunking with Bernat but he doesn't care, he keeps Javi close. Alberto falls asleep with his arm around the taller man and wakes up to too much space on the narrow bed. His nose is stuffy and his head aches. 

Juan clears his throat and Alberto rolls to his other side to face him. The numbers on the clock do not make sense to his scrambled mind. He still feels the phantom touch of Javi's fingers on his scalp, soothing him to a dreamless sleep. How could he dream with such a defeat on his shoulders, with the warmth of Javier next to him. 

"There is always the Euros." Alberto grimaces and trains his eyes on the glass of water on the table. He catches a few more minutes of sleep when Juan quietly goes to shower. He dreams of Javi jumping into a hug as they win the Champions League. They are wearing the red of Liverpool.

*

On the bus, Bartra sits next to him. Alberto is tracing the faint purple bruises beneath Javi's closed eyelids with his eyes. He knew the other man hated sleeping on the bus. It made his neck all stiff. He preferred the plane seats over the bus. Alberto worried he had overstepped his boundaries. Comfort was easy between them but Alberto was anxious all of a sudden. What if he had done something, said something in his sleep? He is used to sleeping with Lilliana by his side and Ali at the foot of the bed. 

He remembers the wash of irritation when Griezmann came over to congratulate Javi during the group stage. He was perfectly polite and made conversation with both of them like he hadn't interrupted their own. Football broke barriers but he still didn't like the Frenchman. He seemed a little too flash like most of the french forwards he had met.

"You should come back to La Liga. I heard _El Mister_ talk about you. Your contract is up, no?" Alberto frowned. It was still odd to hear his friends campaign for him and their teams. He liked the Premier League. The pace is rewarding and Liverpool had taught him a lot. 

"No, not yet." He contented himself with imagining going against the flashy forward in a Barca kit and smiled a little.

*

He wasn't sure where the time went. Eight years was a lot to give to a club and he wanted to go out with Big Ears. The FA Cup was for Stevie but this was for himself as much as it was for Jordan and Adam and the rest of the team and the fans who sang to them. Balo had made a surprising move to the German side and was loving it. Couti had gone onto the Serie A with Juventus and Alberto was sitting on his hands like with all of his big decisions in life. 

He had an insane urge to call Stevie to ask him what he would do. That would be a strange parallel to his first move and the advice Xabi had given him. Sevilla was always going to be in the back of his mind, but that was the ending, that was for happiness down the line. Alberto wanted something more, another strange adventure. All roads pointed back to Spain. 

*

Daniel's goal seemed to break the sound barrier because Alberto couldn't hear anything beyond a dull roar. The world got to see him cry again, but this time in elation. They did the old dance and got tackled into pile of limbs, into a pile of winners. Alberto felt like he was going to pull something with his smile. He knew Steven was somewhere in the booths, so he pointed upwards and started to sing. They all put their arms around shoulders and sang around the trophy that hadn't been in Liverpool's hands since Istanbul. 

_When I was just a little boy, I asked my father what would he be._

_Steven Gerrard is our captain. Steven Gerrard is a red. _The crowd echoes back as Steven came down to the field in a suit. Jordan takes one arm of the trophy and Adam takes the other to lift it. Daniel slings an arm around Stevie and points with his other at their Liverpool legend, at the hero that shared his love for a team with all of them. Alberto is a month away from turning thirty and he feels like he is on top of the world.__

__*_ _

__Xabi and his son had been in the stands. The rumor of an Alonso joining the Liverpool ranks sparks along the tabloids which brings back the eternal Gerrard/Alonso bond back on the forefront, especially with the Champions League win. Xabi Alonso was coaching Real Sociedad and already the papers called him the next Guardiola of management. Alberto gets missed calls from his brother, Javier and his agent. He calls Javier back outside the bar they have camped in._ _

__"Alberto! No lo creo!" Javi's voice is exuberant and fills him with renewed energy. Alberto knows Javier had the same dreams of holding that trophy aloft, but Atleti had been knocked out by Dortmund. It was strange to think they could have met on the pitch as enemies in these European nights. He had almost looked forward to it._ _

__"Come here. Come celebrate with me." Javier does a half hiccup of a laugh, that makes Alberto's swimming mind focus on imagining Javier's face._ _

__"You're drunk." It is a fond observation and Alberto wants to do something stupid to prove he still has his senses but all he can come up with is to sing a pop song that had been playing on the radio so he doesn't say anything besides,_ _

__"And you're not. Javi, porfa, or I can go to you!" The idea is bright, the future is bright and he is desperate to share the feeling with his best friend. He almost wishes Javi didn't love Atleti as much as he did, so he could have stayed with them, with him at Liverpool._ _

__"They will not let you on the plane." Alberto laughs and almost drops his phone when he sees Steven and Xabi get in a taxi together. He curses colorfully because that was not what he expected for this night's end. There was no mistaking it, the look between them, Xabi with his arm around Stevie's waist, leaning into each other._ _

__"Alberto?" He hears and decides against saying anything. He owes them as much._ _

__" _Perdon_ , and yes they will, I'm a champion!"_ _

__*_ _

__The bright future culminates with a second star on La Furia's jersey. He doesn't cry because he is in disbelief. Javier runs to him and almost topples him. His stomach colliding with his face for some seconds before Alberto brings his arms down._ _

__"We did it!" Javier's smile is like a new day rising and Alberto dazedly thinks he would like to kiss it. They are world champions. They have won the World Cup after twelve years of ridicule, of telling Spain they were not good enough to reach the gold once more. It is the sweetest victory he has ever tasted. It is better than Europa Cup and Champions combined. David is on his knees with his head in his gloves. Alberto is not sure if he is praying or crying but Juan stoops down to hug him and Marc wraps a flag around both of them._ _

__Hector is on Paco's shoulders. Isco is holding the trophy like a newborn. A second star, Alberto kisses the crest._ _

__*_ _

__In the months during his transfer to Barcelona, Steven Gerrard comes out of the closet as a bisexual. Alberto is viscerally proud of the man for having the courage to speak out after this many years in the public eye. After coming home to Spain in a giant party with the Cup in hand, he finds out Xabi and Stevie were seen in the stands together._ _

__Alberto thinks of the night of the Champions League final. He thinks back on that old story in Istanbul and after. Xabi had told him Liverpool was unforgettable and Steven was the best captain he could ask for in that side of Europe. He knew it was true, but he hadn't counted on Javier, on those two seasons of finding his footing in a new country and daring each other to navigate the subway and the city. He fell in love with Liverpool. He fell in love _in_ Liverpool and hadn't figured it out until a decade of games later._ _

__He will be thirty-five when his contract with Barcelona is up and as much as he loves Sevilla, he thinks there is another story in the making. Something less career-centric and more resolutions and romance, he hopes. Alberto squares his shoulders as he walks out of the tunnel. Javier gives him a smile before turning to the refs with his pennant for the captain's exchange._ _

__Alberto can wait another ninety minutes._ _

**Author's Note:**

> This is a mess bye. I haven't written anything in so long I feel rusty. I set out to finally finish the claim I made over a month ago.


End file.
